Systematic Review and Bioinformatic Analysis of microRNA Expression in Autism Spectrum Disorder Identifies Pathways Associated With Cancer, Metabolism, Cell Signaling, and Cell Adhesion.

Background: Previous studies have identified differentially expressed microRNAs in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however, results are discrepant. We aimed to systematically review this topic and perform bioinformatic analysis to identify genes and pathways associated with ASD miRNAs. Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses, we searched the Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and OVID databases to identify all studies comparing microRNA expressions between ASD persons and non-ASD controls on May 11, 2020. We obtained ASD miRNA targets validated by experimental assays from miRTarBase and performed pathway enrichment analysis using Metascape and DIANA-miRPath v3. 0. Results: Thirty-four studies were included in the systematic review. Among 285 altered miRNAs reported in these studies, 15 were consistently upregulated, 14 were consistently downregulated, and 39 were inconsistently dysregulated. The most frequently altered miRNAs including miR-23a-3p, miR-106b-5p, miR-146a-5p, miR-7-5p, miR-27a-3p, miR-181b-5p, miR-486-3p, and miR-451a. Subgroup analysis of tissues showed that miR-146a-5p, miR-155-5p, miR-1277-3p, miR-21-3p, miR-106b-5p, and miR-451a were consistently upregulated in brain tissues, while miR-4742-3p was consistently downregulated; miR-23b-3p, miR-483-5p, and miR-23a-3p were consistently upregulated in blood samples, while miR-15a-5p, miR-193a-5p, miR-20a-5p, miR-574-3p, miR-92a-3p, miR-3135a, and miR-103a-3p were consistently downregulated; miR-7-5p was consistently upregulated in saliva, miR-23a-3p and miR-32-5p were consistently downregulated. The altered ASD miRNAs identified in at least two independent studies were validated to target many autism risk genes. TNRC6B, PTEN, AGO1, SKI, and SMAD4 were the most frequent targets, and miR-92a-3p had the most target autism risk genes. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that ASD miRNAs are significantly involved in pathways associated with cancer, metabolism (notably Steroid biosynthesis, Fatty acid metabolism, Fatty acid biosynthesis, Lysine degradation, Biotin metabolism), cell cycle, cell signaling (especially Hippo, FoxO, TGF-beta, p53, Thyroid hormone, and Estrogen signaling pathway), adherens junction, extracellular matrix-receptor interaction, and Prion diseases. Conclusions: Altered miRNAs in ASD target autism risk genes and are involved in various ASD-related pathways, some of which are understudied and require further investigation.

Genes involved in the Type I pheromone biosynthesis pathway and chemoreception from the sex pheromone gland transcriptome of Dioryctria abietella.

Dioryctria abietella is a coniferous seed orchard pest that can damage a series of host plants and cause huge losses to the forest economy. Sex pheromones play an important role in lepidopteran sex communication for reproduction and can be used as biological control agents to monitor and trap pests. However, the genes involved in the biosynthesis, transportation, and degradation of D. abietella sex pheromones have not been studied extensively. Transcriptome analysis of female D. abietella sex pheromone glands (PGs) revealed that 210 candidate genes might be involved in sex pheromone biosynthesis (139 genes) and chemoreception systems (71 genes). The gene expression patterns exhibited four desaturase genes (DabiDES4-7) and one fatty acid reductase gene (DabiFAR6), which were more highly expressed in sex pheromone glands than in other tissues, suggesting that these enzymes play an important role in D. abietella sex pheromone synthesis. In addition, most DabiOBPs showed high expression in antennae, but only DabiOBP4 exhibited specific expression in sex pheromone glands, suggesting that they may play many physiological roles in D. abietella. We put forth a reasonable hypothesis about type I pheromone biosynthesis pathways based on these genes identified in the D. abietella sex pheromone gland transcriptome. Our findings lay a foundation for population monitoring, mating disruption, mass trapping, and the development of ecologically acceptable management strategies.

[Application and prospect of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy in forage analysis].

Forage was the material basis of animal husbandry production, and its quality is directly related to the quality of animal products. It was very important to control the forage quality and detect the composition of forage raw materials in forage production. Predication of forage quality was often completed by the traditional and classical methods in the past, which were complex, time consuming and expensive, and could not acquire the nutritional value of forage timely. Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy was a highly efficient and rapid modern analysis technique developed in 1970's. It comprehensively applied the latest research results of computer technique, spectroscopy and chemometrics, and has been widely used in various fields owing to its unique advantages such as being timely, less expensive, non-destructive, and so on. Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy has gained more and more importance though its application to forage analysis was very late. Presently, not only conventional composition (such as moisture, dry matter, crude protein, crude fiber, crude fat, crude ash neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, etc.), but also non-conventional composition (including minerals, trace elements, enzyme and anti-nutritional factors etc. ) and anti-nutritional factors in forage were determined by means of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Testing and analyzing the conventional composition in forage was the traditional applied field of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy, a lot of studies of which were done and it has already been one of the standard methods of testing the conventional composition. Forage bioavaibility was also evaluated by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy, so as to assess the utilization rate and nutritional value of forage. Moreover, near infrared spectroscopy could be used successfully to predict the botanical composition in grassland and leaf/stem ratios. Near infrared spectroscopy technique and its application and prospect in forage analysis were reviewed in the present paper.

Phytotoxicity of umbelliferone and its analogs: Structure-activity relationships and action mechanisms.

Two coumarins, umbelliferone and daphnoretin, were isolated from roots of Stellera chamaejasme L; the former had been identified as one of the main allelochemicals in our previous studies. Both of them have the skeleton of 7-hydroxycoumarin, but showed different phytotoxic effects. Umbelliferone and its analogs were then prepared to investigate the structure-activity relationship of hydroxycoumarins and screened for phytotoxicity. The inhibitory effects varied observably in response to the coumarin derivatives, especially umbelliferone (1), 7-hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin (3) and coumarin (10) displayed strong inhibition of lettuce and two field weeds, Setaria viridis and Amaranthus retroflexus, and compounds 11 and 12 also exhibited phytotoxic activity with species specificity. The number and location of hydroxyl groups were importantly responsible for the phytotoxicity. A C7 hydroxyl group was considered to be a potentially active site and methyl substitution at the C4 position contributed significantly to the activity. The phytotoxic mechanism was briefly studied with umbelliferone by evaluating the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and chlorophylls level in lettuce seedlings. The results showed that umbelliferone induced the accumulation of ROS in the root tip and significantly decreased the chlorophyll content in the leaves. Thus, a ROS-mediated regulation pathway and the inhibition of photosynthesis were definitely involved in the phytotoxicity of umbelliferone.